In a rather surprising development, Currys and PC World will be selling Nvidia’s Tegra Note 7 tablet under their own brand.
The Advent Vega Tegra Note 7 as it’s known, will be available in stores and online from November 15, but pre-orders will be available tomorrow. The price is £179, slightly less than the Nexus 7, but quite a bit more than Tesco’s Hudl.
Although it has a different brand, the hardware is identical – Tegra 4 SoC, 7-inch 1280×800 IPS display, 1GB of RAM, 16GB storage and a stylus to boot. The only difference is the sticker.
Here is the interesting part. Although we speculated that some players could sell the Tegra Note 7 under their own brand, when it was announced, Nvidia said it would be sold by five AIBs, one or two handling every major region. Nvidia never mentioned retailers.
If Currys and PC World and willing to give it a go, and if Nvidia is happy to offer such an arrangement, they might be the first of many retailers to adopt Nvidia tablets and sell them under their own brand.
In addition to the Tegra Note 7, Nvidia is also working on a few other Android devices. The Shield console is already out, although it lacks the mass market appeal of tablets. However, Nvidia is also working on a reference phone platform (Phoenix) and rumour has it that other tablets are in the works, too.